John Oliver’s HBO show “Last Week Tonight” has only aired six episodes, but already its host is earning praise for eviscerating segments like those on the FCC’s network-neutrality proposal and World Cup organizer FIFA.
If the weekly production schedule wasn’t keeping Oliver busy enough, on Wednesday he not only appeared on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” but served as the entertainment at a Museum of the Moving Image dinner, where The Post chatted with him about the early doings of his show.
“I’m happy that we’ve done six weeks and we haven’t destroyed anything,” Oliver told The Post. “We still don’t really know what we’re doing yet. It’s controlled drowning week to week.”
“[FIFA] was complicated because they’re a vast, complicated thing to take on,” he added. “That was a miserable week of writing, just because it was so hard, but I think it came out OK. So I’m pleased about that.”
And how does he feel about possibly contributing to crashing the FCC comments website with his segment on network neutrality?
“We’re not really activists, we just thought the whole thing was ridiculous,” he said. “I think it was just a case of pointing out something that was incredibly annoying and then pointing out a place for the people to vent their rage.
“And also there was something inherently comic about the fact that it affects the Internet so deeply and it’s going to affect Internet commenters that are active, as you know. It seemed like the natural outlet for it.”
Later in the evening, the British comedian got the black-tie crowd at the St. Regis Hotel laughing with a 10-minute set that mused on absurd American achievements like the T-shirt cannon, spending $300 million on pet Halloween costumes and heartburn medication.
Oliver also got some choice zingers in for honoree Charlie Rose, the 72-year-old anchor of “CBS This Morning” and his eponymous PBS talk show.
“Charlie is without question my favorite morning newsman because he does not have a face that belongs in the morning,” he cracked. “Not only is he trying to do hard news in the morning, which is incredible, but he’s delivering it like someone has elbowed him awake at a bar somewhere.”
But when it came to co-honoree Richard Plepler, CEO of HBO, Oliver demurred. “Richard Plepler is my boss, therefore I have no jokes.”
As he told The Post self-deprecatingly earlier that evening, “I don’t think six weeks in I have built up the ability to roast him yet. Maybe in a year’s time, if I haven’t been fired by then, then I’ll feel like I have the grit. It’s just too risky at this point. I can’t give him any more reasons to fire me.”